Kindle 3 Teardown

Written By: Si Li

Published: 10/05/13

Comments: 15

Kindle 3 Teardown

Published: 10/05/13

Teardown

Introduction

Kindle 3 is a great ebooks reader from Amazon.com.

Tools

Step 1

Pry the back open. The back is kept in place by a dozen tabs around the sides.
Pry it out with an X ACTO blade or a spludger.
I used my finger nails since part of the back had already popped open after I crushed it.

Step 2

There are 24 screws holding it in place. I used a PH00 and PH000 screw driver to remove them. The same are used for the screws on a macbook.
The battery is a 1750 mAh, 6.47Wh lithium polymer, which is ~10% more than the Kindle 2.
Note this image is up side down.

One of the red-circled screws, the one at the bottom left of the first image, has a circular cap beneath it which also comes off. You have to line it back up carefully to get the screw back in.

Sarah Jasmon -

Step 3

Remove the two cables on the left side. They are held in place by a piece of plastic. Use your finger nail and flip it out. It should be very easy and require very little force.
Circled in red is the cable to the side buttons.
Circled in blue is the cable to the e-ink display. This cable is pretty fancy, it even has a couple of ICs embedded in it.

Note about the small cable: approach the light brown plastic part from the outer edge of device with fingernail and gently flip (lift) towards the inner side. The cable can then be pulled out with e.g. tiny screwdriver.

Big cable is just lifted from the inner side up and towards the outer edge with fingernail.

Zlatko - 05/04/21

Thanks for this clarification, I'd never have worked it out otherwise!

Sarah Jasmon -

Step 4

Remove the cable on the bottom right corner. This is the cable to the keypad.
Above it is a black piece of plastic that connects the circuit board to an external slot for the optional cover and light that Amazon sells.
Above that (not shown) is the other small cable that connects to the other side buttons.

Note about the small cable is the same as for the previous one: come from the outer edge of the device and gently lift the brown tab up and towards the inner side. The cable slides out.

Bigger cable: gently lift the brown plastic up and to the inner side, the cable also slides out.

Zlatko - 05/04/21

Removal of the ribbon cables for the keyboard and side buttons is not necessary to replace the screen. The black plastic piece only needs the screws on the edge removed. After removing all black screws and silver ones, lift the whole backplate off the screen. Carefully pry up the screen, mine only had adhesive on the bottom edge.

Bounty B. Wolf -

Step 5

Once you've removed all the screws shown in step one, the PCB can be easily removed, along with the back plate.

If you're just trying to get to the screen to replace it, you might not need to lift the logic board off the back plate. Just turn the whole shebang out, and there's the screen.

If this is the first time you've replaced the screen, there's some strong adhesive holding the screen onto the front panel. You can use the spudgers to break it loose. Try not to break the screen any more than it already is; you don't want tiny bits of glass all over the place. If you're like me, and didn't find a better protective cover after breaking the first screen, the screen will pop right out without much pressure second time around.

lkollar - 18/04/16

The little brass piece shown to the right of the numeral “1” (the photo in Step 5) came loose in the box where I was storing my dismantled Kindle 3 until the replacement screen came. I couldn’t figure out how it went back on until I found it in your picture. Thank you!

Crys - 22/08/18

Step 6

And there you have it. Very easy to disassemble but most of the parts are not replaceable, except for the screen and battery.

Author

Si Li

Member since: 27/05/10

659 Reputation

8 comments

The wife dropped her Kindle the other day and now it's stuck on the same screen. I've pulled the battery and the screen stayed on the entire time the battery was out of the housing. Completely confused now. Any suggestions?

cedarwolf@yahoo.com

cedarwolf -

That's normal. It only needs power to change the contents of the screen. It sounds the power switch or the cable to the screen is disconnected. If it's neither than email amazon tech support and see if they'll replace your kindle for free. That's what they did for me.

Si Li -

I recently inherited a Kindle 3 but the ink seems to have dried up so the words are unclear against the white background. Can I replace the e-ink on my own? How?

benghui - 24/11/19

I can’t put the USB charger all the way into the charging port. Any suggestions?

Jeanie - 26/07/20

Thanks for this guide, quite informative. I managed to disassemble the Kindle completely and replace the display. For other users, just be patient and wiggle the ports and connectors slowly until they come out. The same applies when putting back, it all comes nicely to the right place, just be patient. There is useful comment above about screen removal (prying the adhesive), when assembling the screen I used the insulation tape to fix it in position. After putting all the screws back, it will be fitted tightly by means of pressure from other parts, no need to apply adhesive or glue to to secure the screen.

Zlatko - 05/04/21

Have Kindle 3. Lost 1 of 2 battery screws. Any idea where I can find replacement?

Herbert Johnson -

I pressed on the screen of my Kindle with my elbow and cracked the screen. So I got another one from eBay which was going for parts for less than £10: the seller said she couldn't find a charger to check it was working so I hoped that meant the screen was okay. Turned out the charger port was broken. So I followed the instructions above up to step 5, where I took the innards of my original one out in one go and put them into the screen body side of the second one. Hurrah, one working Kindle! Thanks for the directions, images and comments :)

Sarah Jasmon -